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bear garden. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bear garden, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bear garden in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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bear garden, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Noun
bear garden (plural bear gardens)
- (historical) A public place where bears are kept for diversion or fighting.
- (archaic) Any place where riotous conduct is common or permitted.
1771, Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling, London: Cassell, published 1886, pages 60–1:[…] Indeed, the education of your youth is every way preposterous; you waste at school years in improving talents, without having ever spent an hour in discovering them; one promiscuous line of instruction is followed, without regard to genius, capacity, or probable situation in the commonwealth. From this bear-garden of the pedagogue, a raw, unprincipled boy is turned loose upon the world to travel; […]
- 1867-1868, Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy
- He sees the rich, the aristocratic class, in occupation of the executive government, and so if he is of us, stopped from making Hyde Park a bear-garden or the streets.